


if you’re gone tomorrow

by weisenbachfelded



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: First Kiss, I don’t know how to tag I’m sorry, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, but not really, its a great time guys you’ll love it, its a lil bit angsty?, its the scene of something to believe in but with davey instead, newsies but javid is endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23392648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weisenbachfelded/pseuds/weisenbachfelded
Summary: ‘I’m not an idiot, you know,’ Jack said, not quite able to meet Davey’s eyes. ‘I know guys like us don’t wind up together. And I don’t want you promising nothin’ you’re gonna take back later.’the rooftop scene if jack and davey had ended up together
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Comments: 7
Kudos: 117





	if you’re gone tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> i have never written anything in this fandom so be nice to me pls leave me comments and kudos and maybe i’ll write more in the same au?
> 
> come visit me on tumblr @weisenbachfelded

‘Jesus, Davey, give a guy some warning.’

Davey turned with a start, quickly hiding the papers in his hands. In the light of dusk his face was half-shadowed, and difficult to read. Davey couldn’t help but be thankful that Jack couldn’t see the guilt on his face, and the blush rising up his cheeks. 

‘How’d you get up here?’ Jack asked. Davey faltered a little at his anger. 

‘I - Specs showed me.’ He looked down at the papers. Jack stormed forwards and snatched them from his hands. 

‘He say you could go through my stuff?’ Jack shoved the papers back into his bag, and turned away from Davey, hands gripping the rooftop railings until his knuckles whitened. 

‘I’m sorry, Jack, they were rolled up and  
sticking out of there and i just -‘

‘Yeah, well. they’re still mine.’ with Jack’s back turned, Davey couldn’t quite tell - and he hardly dared to think it - but there was an unmistakeable softening to Jack’s tone. Snatching at the chance, Davey took a step closer to Jack. 

‘That’s the refuge, isn’t it? in the drawings?’  
Jack stayed silent. ‘They sent you there for stealing food and clothes - it was for the boys, wasn’t it?’ Davey saw the tension in his shoulders release, just a fraction. ‘I don’t understand, Jack. If you were willing to go to jail for them then, how can you turn your back on them now?’ 

Jack turned to face him, an anger Davey didn’t recognise flaring in his eyes. 

‘Don’t you dare - don’t you dare lecture me about turnin’ my back on those kids.’ Jack stormed towards Davey, backing him up against the railings. 

‘You’re abandoning them when they need it most, and you know it.’ Davey stared up at Jack, cornered, but defiant. 

‘I was all they damn well had when they needed it most! I kept them alive!’ Jack’s face was inches from Davey’s. 

‘You know I’m right, Jack, you just hate that I’m not too scared to tell you the truth.’ Davey knew he was pushing it, knew he was pushing Jack too far. 

‘If the boys wouldn’t kill me for it, you’d be trying to talk with a fist in your mouth.’ Jack said between gritted teeth, so close that Davey could see every tense of his jaw, feel the heave of his chest with every breath. 

‘And if you hadn’t been beat up already today, you’d be looking at me through one swollen eye,’ Davey spat back. 

‘Oh, don’t let that stop you. Gimme your best shot.’ Jack jutted his chin out, daring him, defiant and angry and -

Davey grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him. It wasn’t soft, but full of anger and emotion, the bump of teeth and lips verging on uncomfortable. All at once, Jack seemed to burst into life, his hands wrapping around davey’s waist, pulling him closer - 

Davey stumbled back, suddenly unsteady without the support of Jack’s hands on his waist. For a moment, they stood apart, neither quite able to meet the other’s eyes. The few metres between them stretched into a small universe, the night air thick and hot and heavy. Jack was the first to breach the gap. His movements softer, gentler, a little more considered, he took a step forwards and moved in - perhaps to kiss Davey, perhaps simply to feel him close again. Davey put a hand to his shoulder, stopping him - not by force, but as though the lightest of Davey’s touches was enough to keep Jack away. 

‘Did you -‘ Davey stopped, fumbling for the words. He swallowed, and saw Jack’s eyes flicker down and follow the line of his throat as he did so. ‘Did you cave for the money?’ 

‘No, Davey, I -‘ Jack moved as though to touch Davey, to hold him, but stopped himself at the last moment. ‘I spoke the truth. You win a fight when you got the other guy down eatin’ pavement. It’s like Pulitzer said. No matter how many days we strike, he ain’t givin’ up. I don’t know what else we can do.’ Jack twisted his hands together as though he was desperate to keep them from reaching out, worry lines creasing his forehead. 

‘But Katherine does.’ Davey allowed himself the tiniest of smiles.

‘Come on, Dave...’ 

‘Oh, so only you’re allowed to have good ideas?’ Davey teased. 

‘I didn’t say -‘

‘Just hear me out.’ 

Jack sighed, conceding, but the worry lines didn’t leave his forehead. Davey pushed ahead. 

‘She’s got this idea for us to publish one more piece, get more people to strike. it’s like you said, Jackie. For the sake of all the kids in New York.’

‘Okay,’ Jack nodded, ‘okay. I think I get it. One small problem - where are we gonna print it?’ 

‘There must be one printing press in New York that Pulitzer doesn’t own.’ This sparked something in Jack. 

‘I know one that no one would ever think we’d use.’ He began to smile, the creases of worry disappearing from his face. 

‘Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let’s find Katherine, let her explain to you properly!’ Davey started towards the ladder. ‘She’s a genius, I swear, just you wait -‘

‘Wait - Davey, stop.’ Jack reached for Davey, finally, fingers stopping just short of curling round his arm. ‘What’s this about for you? I don’t mean the article, or the strike, I mean -‘ he waved his hand between the two of them, and Davey’s heart dropped to the very pit of his stomach. ‘I mean us. Am I kiddin’ myself or are we...?’ He took a deep, shaky breath in. ‘Is there something...?’ 

‘Jackie, of course there is,’ Davey said, reaching out a hand to meet Jack’s between them. Their fingertips brushed, not quite interlocking, not quite joining, not yet. 

‘Well, don’t just say that like something like this happens every day!’ Davey laughed at that, heart pounding in his chest, his head, his ears. He finally, finally took Jack’s hand in his, pulled their joined hands to his chest. Davey had the sudden fear that Jack would feel the frantic, heavy beating of his heart, and then, just as suddenly, realised that he didn’t care. Jack was trembling all over, the only thing steady his hand in Davey’s. 

‘Oh, Jackie,’ Davey said. or, at least, he intended to say - it came out scarcely a whisper, any words he wanted to follow disappearing on his lips. 

‘I’m not an idiot, you know,’ Jack said, not quite able to meet Davey’s eyes. ‘I know guys like us don’t wind up together. And I don’t want you promising nothin’ you’re gonna take back later.’

‘Jack, I wouldn’t -‘

‘Would you shut your mouth for a moment and let me tell you I love you?’ Jack looked taken aback that he’d dared to say it. Davey tried to speak again, but, with a warning look from Jack, stopped himself, and simply smiled from ear to ear. 

‘It’s just that...’ Jack’s eyes darted around again, as though if he searched hard enough, the right words would materialise before him like a script. ‘Standin’ here tonight, with you lookin’ all beautiful and you really telling me that we could be somethin’... I’m scared tomorrow’s gonna come and change everything. If there was a way I could grab hold of something to make time stop, just so’s I could keep looking at you.’

‘You snuck up on me, Jack Kelly. I never even saw it coming.’ Davey whispered, and leaned in. When their lips met this time, there was none of the anger of before. Their hands still intertwined between their chests, Jack was so close that Davey could feel his heartbeat too, thumping just as loud and fast as his own. This time, it was Jack who pulled away, and rested their foreheads together, smiling. Davey placed a hand tentatively on his waist, his touch light and questioning. 

‘I love you, Jackie. Since you never let me tell you earlier.’ Jack laughed, soft and sweet. 

‘I thought I was inventin’ things,’ Jack said, ‘all those looks you’d been givin’ me and stuff - I figured it was wishful thinking that they actually meant somethin’.’ 

‘You’re telling me we could’ve been doing this for ages?’ Davey shook his head in disbelief. ‘I thought I was the one inventing things!’

‘For someone so smart, you can be a real dumbass, Davey.’ Jack pressed an affectionate kiss to the corner of Davey’s mouth. ‘I’ve been in love with you since the first minute I saw you. Why d’you think I offered to go sellin’ with you?’ 

‘It’s been that long?’ Davey asked, staring up at Jack in what Jack could only describe as awe. 

‘Yeah, yeah, don’t let it get to your head.’ he rolled his eyes, but leant in to quickly kiss Davey again. ‘When... when was it for you?’ he asked - and if Davey didn’t know better, he’d say Jack was nervous. 

‘When you got up to write on that blackboard.’ Davey answered. ‘And you looked down - straight at me - and you gave me this goddamn smile. Like we had a secret, me and you, like we knew something the rest of the world didn’t. Couldn’t stop thinking about you after that.’ 

‘Took you that long, huh?’

‘You shut your mouth, Jack Kelly.’ Jack raised an eyebrow, hardly able to contain his smirk. Davey leaned in and kissed him, and Jack laughed, smile curving against Davey’s lips. Jack brought his hands up to where Davey’s were still resting, feather-light, on his waist.

‘I ain’t gonna break, Davey.’ He murmured, hardly breaking the kiss. Davey didn’t need telling twice. Bringing one hand up to Jack’s hair, he wrapped the other round the small of his back, pulling him infinitely closer. Jack made a small noise of surprise, and melted into his touch, and suddenly Jack’s hands were everywhere. Running through his hair, curving round the back of his neck, skimming the hem of his shirt, teasing. 

When they pulled apart, after what could have been a few moments or a small infinity, Jack held Davey’s gaze, as though he was trying to decipher some kind of code deep in his eyes. Jack was breathing heavily, raggedly - and Davey found himself swelling with pride that he had done that; he had given the unshakeable Jack Kelly that desperate look in his eyes, those kiss-reddened lips. 

‘I always thought,’ Davey murmured, ‘I always thought that I knew what love was. and then you got up on that damn platform, and you wrote on that damn blackboard, and suddenly everything I thought I knew went out the window.’ 

‘You gave me somethin’ to believe in, Davey. You didn’t even know it, but you did.’ Jack ducked his head, almost embarrassed to be admitting such a thing. Davey opened his mouth to respond, but instead simply pressed a searing kiss to Jack’s mouth, pulling him close. Jack’s hands were burning imprints on either side of Davey’s neck, holding him there. 

When he pulled back to look once more, there was a new longing in his eyes, and a new wistfulness in his voice. 

‘God, if things were different.’ Jack said, still smiling, a little more sadly. 

‘Maybe if you weren’t going to Santa Fe.’ Davey replied, hesitant. Jack turned away at that, as though it was too much to confront. ‘Jack, I don’t -‘ Davey caught his arm, turning him back to face him. ‘Even if you - just listen to me, Jackie - even if you are gone tomorrow, that doesn’t change what we have. I’ll always have something to believe in, ‘cause you believed in me.’

‘I’ll always believe in you, Davey Jacobs.’ Jack pressed his lips together, as if to keep words he’d regret from spilling over his lips. Davey lurched towards him - but not for another kiss. He threw his arms around Jack and buried his face in his neck. 

‘I’m sorry we couldn’t -‘ Davey started. 

‘Don’t apologise, Davey.’ Jack whispered, swallowing down the cracks in his voice. Davey held on to him a little tighter.


End file.
